The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) of 2011 aims to ensure that the United States food supply is safe by shifting the focus from simply responding to food contamination to proactively preventing the contamination of food. As such, there is a need in the art for hygienically designed food processing equipment that produces microbiologically safe food by minimizing the risk of contamination. It is also desirable that the hygienically designed food processing equipment be easily cleaned and sanitized to further reduce the risk of contamination.
Standing water in a food processing facility has been identified as one potential cause of food contamination. Standing water provides a breeding ground for bacteria, such as listeria, which multiplies in wet conditions that lack sanitary measures. In addition, washing and sorting equipment that is not designed to allow for adequate cleaning and sanitizing can provide an additional breading ground for bacteria.
Commercial food processing and food service equipment is often supported upon a floor by support legs having a footpad or a moveable caster. Typically the support legs or casters are adjustable to allow for height adjustments to achieve a desired height in a working environment. Adjusting the height of the equipment may also be necessary to provide a level work surface in situations where the floor itself is not level or even. Typically, adjustable legs are designed having a threaded shaft and a complimentary threaded footpad or caster that is adjustable by screwing the footpad or caster in or out of the threaded shaft to achieve the desired equipment height. However, the threaded shaft design provides a harborage for bacteria as a result of the increased surface area of the threads. Additionally, the threaded shaft is commonly implemented in an unsealed square or rectangular tubular leg, which allows water to intrude into the unsealed leg and provides a breeding ground for bacteria. Because the threaded shaft is enclosed within the square tube leg, the interior of the leg is inaccessible making it very difficult to sanitize, thereby increasing the overall operating cost of the equipment.
Additionally, the prior art adjustable support having a threaded shaft is difficult to adjust because it is necessary to lift the equipment off of the ground by an amount sufficient to allow for the adjustment of the caster within the threaded shaft to raise or lower the height of the equipment.
According, what is needed in the art is an improved height adjustable support for use in hygienically designed food processing equipment that eliminates undesirable bacteria harboring surfaces and that is easy to sanitize and easy to adjust.